Stories are so central to the human experience that researchers who study them have come to think they play a fundamental role in allowing us to understand the minds of others. Psychologists call this 'theory of mind' — the ability to recognize that other people have thoughts, feelings, and desires that are different from our own. Without stories, some researchers believe, this ability might never fully develop.
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The price of hating other human beings is loving oneself less. And the man who has learned to hate himself completely has achieved something very nearly like freedom.
Eldridge Cleaver — Soul on Ice
When we stop speaking to each other, we soon start warring. Our better nature descends to the bestial.
Ted Gioia
The best children's books are works of philosophy in disguise, shining a sidewise gleam on the fundamental questions we live with, articulating in the language of children, which is the language of great simplicity and great profundity, the most complex truths about being human.
Maria Popova